The pair is also planning a jobs boost for Hartlepool as their company based at Queens Meadow Business Park takes off, including 16 apprentices by the end of the year and 50 staff “by year two”.

Utilities Alliance uses the combined bulk-buying power of all its customers to access cheaper energy market prices.

It searches UK and European suppliers and promises to leave “no stone unturned” when searching for the best deal.

Darren and Bob worked for a large plc - and decided to go it alone, after watching the company expand from 13 to 750 staff in five years.

Bob said: “It’s very simple - we find a better deal for business customers in today’s energy market.

“There is about 70% of businesses currently don’t use an energy consultant or broker they just think it’s a bill that’s there to be paid.

“We can come in, put a proposal together for them, it’s non-intrusive they don’t have to do anything.

“Everybody needs to reduce their bills, why not make it more refined and a lot easier for people? It makes sense.”

“We’ve searched through about 45 different suppliers in the UK and Europe. We get together all the energy consumptions as a group, like group purchasing, a consortium.

“Hartlepool Council has done something similar, where households have bought energy as a group. We are doing it for businesses.

“Darren and I worked together for a large plc - we almost worked as a franchise, generating business by ourselves. We thought ‘why are we doing this for somebody else when we could do it for ourselves?’

“We want to bring employment to the area. The company I worked for started with 13 staff five years ago, now it employs 750 people.”

The pair has employed two apprentices, two interns from Teesside University and two senior consultants to get things off the ground.

Darren added: “We want to bring more employment to the area, this is a hub for big companies.

“We want to look at reducing energy costs for companies, at the moment there’s a lot of unscrupulous dealings going on.”